mihu wrote:Volcas are entry level products and offer a lot for the money. Quite obviously they are not for everyone. I have no plans to buy them, but I'm glad Korg is expanding the line of affordable synths. With the exception of OK GO which seems like developed in marketing department every unit is quite different and offers something interesting.
Judging from demos nubass sounds very good - perhaps due to vacuum tube oscillator?
The filter is most probably 24 dB like the original TB-303.
OK GO sampler was definitely a marketing ploy as the band was running about licensing their name onto a bunch of stuff at the time including perfume.
The filter isn't hard enough to be a 24dB, but still sounds steeper than the 12dB that Korg are using a lot lately. The TB 303 filter was a 24dB LPF but not a 'moog' transistor ladder but a diode ladder and somehow ended up with a 18dB slope (techie stuff I'm not going to try to explain). I've got a Metro Modular Steel Falcon 1/2/3/4 Pole LPF that is some hybrid of the Roland and Polivoks filter that actually does a beautiful job of sounding like the 303 filter on it's 3 pole output (and a devastating 4 pole that really hammers the frequencies about it's cutoff out of existence).
I have to agree the osc's do seem to add a certain something to them. I don't know enough about electronics to know what the waveform they produce looks like but I'm thinking it's gotta be a distorted, slightly squared-off and fuzzy shape.
ShoNuff wrote:prefer bassbot for that, 100%.
disappointed they didn't offer another programmable thing, like the FM.
seems like just another run at what the Bass wanted to be. and there are
plenty of 303 candidates.
tube osc ? what's the benefit?
i would be mad for a little analogue polysynth with memories, poly800,
polysix, or just something with user presets, digital or analogue. the FM
can be quite versatile, in lots of roles, but would be nice to have an
analogue/hybrid companion for it, and the Keys is a bit too limited.
honestly, i'm perplexed that they did this one.
I really like it's sound. Although it does come across as a 303 attempt, I think it's more of an attempt at the concept and not a clone. The tube osc's are aren't a gimmick as much as a way to provide a more kranky bass sound that will sit with an electric guitar over the top I feel. Only other synth I can think of that used tubes was in a modular oscillator made by Metasonix, a company who make everything out of tubes including intentionally over-the-top distortion units that only exist to make your sound something beyond trash (see their TX-3 but be warned the unit's name and user notes will offend).
With regards to the polysix/poly800, I hear you on that, but with their focus on the minilogues currently I have a feeling they don't want to make anything that might hurt sales of those unit. I am interested in a desk-top XD. I has most of my programming desires contained though could do with more modulation options.
